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Originally Posted by Sleeping in EQ
A significant bone of contention here seems to be whether or not every time "elohim" is used in the plural, "angels," or "God and angels" are being referred to. To assume that "angels" or "God and angels" is always meant seems wholly axiological to me, as does it's very selective translation. Why would the Jews in John 10 want to stone Jesus over referencing the Psalm 82 passage?
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Interesting. Sounds like some philological study needs to be done, but, as you point out, I wonder if scholars will be able to identify the various meanings, since the word is clearly ambiguous. At least, we can conclude that 'angels' had entered the tradition well before the time of Christ.
The verses remind me a little of the choral Hymn to Man in Sophocles'
Antigone:
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[332-368] Wonders are many, and none is more wonderful than man. . . . Earth, too, the eldest of the gods, the immortal, the unwearied, he wears away to his own ends, turning the soil with the offspring of horses as the plows weave to and fro year after year. The light-hearted tribe of birds and the clans of wild beasts and the sea-brood of the deep he snares in the meshes of his twisted nets, and he leads them captive, very-skilled man. He masters by his arts the beast who dwells in the wilds and roams the hills. He tames the shaggy-maned horse, putting the yoke upon its neck, and tames the tireless mountain bull. Speech and thought fast as the wind and the moods that give order to a city he has taught himself, and how to flee the arrows of the inhospitable frost under clear skies and the arrows of the storming rain. He has resource for everything. Lacking resource in nothing he strides towards what must come. From Death alone he shall procure no escape, but from baffling diseases he has devised flights. Possessing resourceful skill, a subtlety beyond expectation he moves now to evil, now to good. (Jeb's translation)
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